The HR Audit
What is the HR Audit, and why should our organisation conduct one?
The HR Audit (sometimes referred to as the HR maturity assessment), is an objective review of the Human Resources function, responsibilities, and programs of an organisation. Every organisation that has employees, from 1 to 100,000, has and does ‘HR’ - even if you do not currently have a HR department or someone responsible for HR.
High-performing organisations understand that people are your most significant competitive advantage and the most challenging resource to acquire, retain, and get the best out of. People increasingly see their skills, experience, and abilities as transferable. And you can be sure that even if you are not ensuring that you are acquiring, retaining, and engaging the people that make your business successful, someone else will be – maybe even your direct competition.
The HR audit helps your organisation to see what it is doing well now, and what it could better (or where it is letting you down), against best practice. It informs the roadmap to improving your HR function, programs, and practices so that you can achieve your business goals. Ultimately, the HR Audit is an excellent tool for ensuring you are getting the best out of your people, and that you are attracting and retaining the talent you need for success.
What is the HR Audit?
The HR audit assesses the maturity of your HR function against objective measures for your industry, location of business, and specific organisational needs or stage of development. It takes best practice HR functions, programs, and practices, and compares them to the reality of HR in your organisation. A robust HR audit will help you to understand your current capability, and the potential you could realise with targeted improvement.
Why do the HR Audit?
Knowledge is power. Be sure that if you don’t understand the gaps in your HR function or the needs of your workforce, your competitors do. The HR audit provides you with data on what you are doing well, where you need to double down, and where you may need to make some changes, introduce new practices and programs, or even just stop doing stuff that isn’t adding value.
The HR Audit will also provides you with the gap analysis you need to build a plan for the desired future state for your HR function. We know that a mature, appropriately resourced HR function adds value to the top and bottom lines through improving the competitive advantage that your people deliver to the organisation. The HR audit helps you know where you are today so that you can move to a new, better future tomorrow.
How do I do the HR Audit?
While each organisation has its own character and purpose, there are some common items you should be covering in a HR audit. This includes:
- Talent management ( from attraction and acquisition, to retention and succession planning)
- Organisational capability
- Employment relations
- Health and safety governance
- Culture & engagement
- Learning & development
- Reward & recognition
- Remuneration & benefits
- Administrative/legal compliance
- Policies & processes
At Avodah HR, we work with organisations to help them audit their HR function, and then build an improvement plan based on the knowledge gained through the audit.
There are three main ways we work to help you achieve this:
Do it for me
We provide our clients with a comprehensive HR audit which includes all of the aspects covered above. We use our tools and templates, and tailor them to your industry and organisation to ensure that you get relevant insights into the things you need to pay attention to.
Do it with me
Avodah HR works with client HR or management representatives to audit your HR function. This provides you with our expertise and audit tools and templates, while reducing the cost of the project by undertaking some of the work yourself
Do it myself
We can provide a free basic audit tool for you to conduct the audit yourself, or we can supply a more comprehensive, tailored tool for your organisation. We can also assist with interpreting results, and making recommendations on addressing gaps and opportunities for improvement.
If you would like to discuss how the HR audit could add value to your business, or how Avodah HR can help with a maturity assessment, get in touch and we can discuss a solution that works for you.